(U.S.): Students from an urban forest management course recently used free U.S. Department of Agriculture software, i-Tree, to estimate benefits of the university's tree canopy including carbon dioxide sequestration, energy savings and shade cover for people enjoying or working in the outdoors. The tree canopy is estimated to cover about 35 percent surface area of campus, which the program equates to roughly $26,000 of annual benefit to the surrounding area.

A new pilot project between university Grounds Management and the Horticulture Field Labs has resulted in a new type of mulch blended from campus landscape debris and wood chips donated by a local tree company, which will result in cost savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions associated with long-distance hauling and delivery.

Over the next couple of months, the goats will help restore the ecological quality of a creek running through campus by munching away at the kudzu, English ivy, privet and other invasive plants that cover the stream banks. Students will have the opportunity to learn about urban water quality and invasive species.

(United States): The university recently met the five core standards for sustainable campus forestry required by Tree Campus USA, including establishment of a tree advisory committee, evidence of a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance, and the sponsorship of student service-learning projects.

(United States): A 0.77-acre tract of land located in the watershed of the Potomac River was recently designated by The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES™) as a sustainable area for features including biofiltration planters, native plant material, pervious pavers, cisterns, rain barrel, and sculptural fountain designed to reuse captured water. The SITES program was created to promote sustainable land development and management practices that can apply to sites with and without buildings.

(U.S.): The university's Department of Landscaping recently hired two Japanese master gardeners to teach traditional tree preservation techniques and assist in installing support braces on a 100-year-old Japanese maple.

Students from the university's chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Arboretum and Botanical Garden recently converted two parking spaces into a public park in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of green spaces in urban areas.

In an effort to preserve and manage their tree population, ecology students continue to work with an outside tree company to identify tree types, record GPS coordinates, measure vital info and assess the health of each specimen.

A recent decision by the local City Council turned over a vacated street which the university plans to use for expansion of its Rogers Park footprint. The space will be transformed into green space connecting campus and creating a safer area for students.

To help buffer two adjoining streams and further climate change resiliency, students plan to reforest a 5-acre tract of the college’s Farm and Ecological Preserve in coordination with the Student Conservation Association (SCA). Liz Putnam, SCA founder and 1955 alumna of Vassar College, will be visiting and working with students.

(U.S.): In an attempt to restore a small stretch of the Ottawa River which runs through campus, the university installed natural stones, vegetation and man-made fish habitats to make the waterway a cleaner and healthier ecosystem.

Mowed just two to three times a year to promote the natural regeneration of grasses and wildflowers, these meadows promote increased biodiversity, improved air quality, natural aesthetics, stormwater runoff reduction, economic savings and learning opportunities.

Recently certified as an Audubon International Signature Golf Sanctuary, the course features extensive, undisturbed native vegetative buffer areas. The course is also used as a teaching laboratory by several departments on campus.

Initiated by a recent urban planning graduate, a formerly unused campus field is now home to raised garden beds, native plants, and two rain barrels that will connect to a nearby building’s downspouts. Food waste from the university's dining areas will be turned into compost to help grow produce including tomatoes, kale and sweet potatoes.

As part of an invitation to assist in developing strategies for climate neutrality, students have successfully proposed that the college cease mowing about nine acres, and instead convert them into managed meadowlands. The accepted initiative, which includes appropriate soil types, plants and wildlife, is projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 12,000 pounds and save about $2,300 in diesel fuel costs per year.

(Ireland): As part of the Green Campus initiative, the university launched the DCU Community Garden. The garden is an open, all-inclusive area that can be utilized by staff, students and the community for teaching, research, education, training, community engagement and recreation.

A group of students has received funding from a local nonprofit organization to create an organic farm on campus. The half-acre farm will be divided into three sections that will include an asparagus patch, a greenhouse and a space for student research. The group plans to organize the farm into work shares to allow student-volunteers to receive produce in exchange for labor.

(U.S.): Two alumni have been working with current environmental studies students to raise money to turn a half-acre of university land into an organic farm. The student-run farm has received commitment from the university for the land, and more than $2,000 toward the $3,500 needed to renovate a greenhouse on the site has been raised.

The college has created a community garden to provide food for the community, help fund scholarships through produce sales, and provide a student educational component. Classes will be held to assist participants in becoming more self-sufficient with their own gardening sustainability efforts.

(U.K.): Forty students helped to plant more than eighty fruit trees around campus residence halls, aiming to provide staff and students locally grown apples. The university will plant plum, pear and soft fruit trees next winter.

(U.S.): The university has been recertified as a Tree Campus USA institution by the Arbor Day foundation for the second year in a row. One of the highlights that led to the recertification was the planting of 1,173 trees on campus in 2012.

The Student Recreation Fields has received certification by the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a pilot program that is creating national guidelines for sustainable land design. The project was judged based on efforts in categories such as site selection, pre-design assessment and planning, water, soil and vegetation, material selection, human health and well-being, operations and maintenance, and monitoring and innovation.

(U.S.): The university has debuted a new community garden that will also hold student fields trips and serve as an educational learning space. The 2-acre “R’Garden” will feature two natural structures: a classroom and a facility equipped with a compost toilet.

The college marked the opening of its Mabel Burchard Fischer Grant Foundation sustainable garden with a gathering that allowed members of the campus community to plant the garden’s first herbs, perennials, and shrubs. The event was organized by the college’s Sustainability Team.

The university has announced plans to break ground for a new campus farm in 2013. The Sustainability Club will grow produce on the farm that will be used in the campus dining halls. Partial funding for the project came from a $20,000 donation from two university trustees.

Members of the group, Students Organizing for Sustainability, have constructed and are maintaining six organic garden beds on campus. More than a dozen produce varieties will be harvested with the inaugural fall crop, and leftover produce will be donated to a local soup kitchen.

In an effort to bring a food-to-fork concept to campus, the university’s Ecological Engineering Society, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and a local chef have collaborated to create an on-campus organic garden that will provide fresh ingredients to a university café. Project funding came from a Coca-Cola Student Sustainability Grant.

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The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education is a membership association of colleges & universities, businesses, and nonprofits who are working together to lead the sustainability transformation. Learn more about AASHE's mission.